whee!

So Nick and I had a very very late Tuesday tea (Friday, near dinnertime, involving coffee - the definition is loose, what can I say?). And we kicked around ideas for what I can only describe as a prog-rock Barbarella caper story based on a couple of images I did a while back.

Mostly it's due to him; I kinda poked him to keep coming up with ideas, provided some initial visual input, and a few fragments. Dunno if it'll go further. We'll see. But it was certainly fun!

yay brainstorming.

then I walked home through intermittent snow carrying dissociation for Rik. poor bastard caught the cold we brought home from California.

pimping for a friend: videogames!

read_alicia is getting rid of her Saturn and Dreamcast stuff, and asked me to point my larger, often-videogame-playing readership towards it. If I had a TV to run these things on and the cash and time to spare I might be tempted myself; she's got some good stuff - a number of the actual reasons to want a Saturn, like Nights (with the analog controller, which I'm told makes it ten times the game it is with the d-pad) and Panzer Dragoon, and several of the Dreamcast-worth-having games like Rez, Jet Grind, and Crazy Taxi. Even Samba De Amigo and its maracas.

Check it out: her Saturn stuff and her Dreamcast stuff. Both are first-generation machines, with multiple controllers.

She's asking for $250 or better for the DC, with $60 more for shipping, and $100 or more for the Saturn; $40 shipping. Prices are negotiable but she's not breaking the lots up; email her. If you're around Boston she says she can just drop it off in her car; no shipping required.

videogame analysis: gunroar

I spent more time than I should mindlessly playing Kenta Cho's "Gunroar" (OSX version here).

I was going to have a longer description of its systems but here's the basics, at least for "Twin Stick" mode (play is dramatically different in the other modes, and I have no interest in them):

( details )

I've tried playing it slow and technical, keeping a clear screen and picking off all the guns before killing enemies as much as possible, and it is more tedious and lower scoring in my experience. Until someone tells me different (some subtle interplay of the elements I missed?) I will consider Gunroar to be a game that's tuned to reward being a lunatic who dives madly into danger.

Later: Ah, there we go. The bonus multiplier also goes up by 1 every time you kill something. This addition to it decays over time, and pumping it is the key to quickly achieving 100x. I think it's +1 regardless of enemy size, sooo... "wait for the small saucer": mow down every tiny, weak boat that crosses your path; don't worry much about the big boats unless there's nothing else to kill, or they're in your way. Copy the file in this zip over 'last.rpl' (Mac users: ctrl-click on the game, 'show package contents'; Contents/Resoursec/replay/ - dunno where the Windows version puts it) and start the game to watch me hit 013,9xx,xxx. I screw up the first two times I get a high multiplier but the third one's the charm.